Having arrived at the workshop of the Szanto family, we were met by Mr. Szanto József, whose family has been making gingerbread since 1880. While he went inside the house to change to traditional Szekler clothes, we could have a look at the small shop on the outside of the house. Various gingerbread figures were on display together with some shapes for shaping the dough. There were also some tables and chairs where their customers could enjoy the taste of their gingerbread.
Next, we were led into the workshop where a large wood-fired oven took up nearly half the space of the workshop.
To add taste to the gingerbread, they use spices like cinnamon, anis, clove, etc. They are grinding the spices manually.
They make the dough in a trough using fine wheat flour, mix it with honey, let it leaven one day, next, they flatten it with a huge roller. They had their own flourmill in the past, but not anymore. Nowadays, they buy flour from a miller in the town of Miercurea Ciuc.
Some time before the dough is ready, they fire up wood in the oven, and when they are turned into embers, they turn them to the left and the gingerbreads to the right, which stay there for 7-10 minutes. After about an hour, they must reheat the oven.
The next day, they add royal icing, consisting of egg white, sugar and food colours. Anyway, they use one colour only a day to avoid colour mixing.
A legend about gingerbread with a mirror: a boy and a girl go to a market, he buys gingerbread with a mirror, if she checks herself in the mirror, she likes him, her mother takes the gingerbread and gives it to the couple when they get married.
Mr. Szanto József decorated several gingerbreads with royal icing during our visit, and he even let me try it. As usual, even if an artisan makes what they are doing seem easy, it requires some practise.
I and another guide visited another gingerbread workshop some years ago. There, the owner told us about the history of gingerbread, which may be worth reading.
